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Hardly Visible
Social climber
Llatikcuf WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 16, 2011 - 04:09pm PT
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They were built without fish passage in the teens and twenties blocking off 70 miles of pristine habitat in Olympic National Park.
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apogee
climber
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Sep 16, 2011 - 04:17pm PT
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It will be very interesting to see the effects of dam removal on the overall river ecosystem. This will certainly create a precedent by which future removals will be considered.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Sep 16, 2011 - 06:04pm PT
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Interesting indeed.
There's a fun little crag right at the dam. You actually have to walk across the dam to get to it.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Sep 16, 2011 - 06:16pm PT
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It's about effing time. I thought they would never get it done. The Elwah had one of the greatest runs of Salmon and Steelhead in the state. Very large fish used to run there. It will be interesting to see how well the recovery will go.
How's it going, Kevin?
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sep 16, 2011 - 09:41pm PT
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I camped below that thing back in the 70's and didn't sleep well. Regardless of its
environmental import that thing looked a disaster waiting to happen back then.
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lars johansen
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Sep 16, 2011 - 09:49pm PT
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Read "West Of Here" by Jonathan Evison, about the history of the area and the construction of the Elwah River Dam.
lars
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Hardly Visible
Social climber
Llatikcuf WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 30, 2011 - 01:07pm PT
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making good progress:
Lower dam
upper dam
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apogee
climber
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Sep 30, 2011 - 01:10pm PT
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Great pics! Keep 'em comin', and thanks for the update!
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Sep 30, 2011 - 01:15pm PT
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the immediate (few years or more) outcomes of removing a major dam are a bit grim for the down river ecosystem. The biggest short-term issue is that these systems have stored up a huge amount of sediment.
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John Moosie
climber
Beautiful California
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Sep 30, 2011 - 01:29pm PT
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Did it create power? Why take it out? Why not build a fish ladder?
Just asking.. I don't know anything about this particular dam, but I do know that we need clean power.
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apogee
climber
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Sep 30, 2011 - 01:39pm PT
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I betcha the OP has better local beta on why the dam is being removed, but the story I heard was that it's practical functions (including power) were no longer efficient or effective, and that it's position on the river has been affecting the ecosystem dramatically for years (including a salmon run).
There are currently around 75,000 dams in the US, about 50,000 of which were built during the heyday of the marriage of the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. A great number were classic pork barrel projects that had very limited practical use. Though it's taken a long time to get past the politics, some of them are starting to be removed now.
What will be particularly interesting about this removal (and there are dozens and dozens of people studying it right now) will the effect that it's removal has on the ecosystem. It's sure to become a precedent by which future removals are considered.
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Sep 30, 2011 - 01:50pm PT
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apogee is correct. Lots of dams are between 50 and 100 years old and were built at a time when there were no considerations of stream ecosystem issues.
It requires a thoughtful balance. Hydro can be an excellent source of electricity.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Sep 30, 2011 - 02:40pm PT
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The local authorities say they have a plan to deal with the sediment. I'm not sure what that plan is. Wait and see I guess. Kevin, do you know what the plan is? I heard it might be a few years before fish start running again.
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bergbryce
Mountain climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
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Sep 30, 2011 - 02:48pm PT
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Sweet, boondoggles like this are job booms on both ends.
Lots of jobs to put it up, lots of jobs to take it down.
I'm glad to see sense prevailing in at least a few places in this nation. No surprise it's in the Northwest.
It will be very interesting to see how the ecosystem responds to this removal.
Thanks for the pics and updates.
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Sep 30, 2011 - 04:54pm PT
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I'm not familiar with this project, but I think there are basically 3 options with sediment.
Remove all of the dam and let the sediment go downstream. There would be ways to make this happen slowly, such as removing the last parts of the dam a little at a time.
Scoop the sediment out and haul it somewhere and dump it.
Leave the sediment in place. So leave, for instance, the bottom 10 or 20 feet of the dam to hold the sediment and construct a small fish ladder.
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bergbryce
Mountain climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
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Sep 30, 2011 - 05:23pm PT
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I would think they would want to dredge that sediment out before removing the dam. Dredging isn't that complicated, scoop, plop, haul away. This seems like a much better option than letting it run downstream and screw up miles of riverbed that won't recover from that kind of loading any time soon.
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
In the mountains... somewhere...
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Sep 30, 2011 - 06:51pm PT
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Not all of this sediment will be silt. Think of the river with no new sediment load in 50 years. It needs some! The trick it to not dump it all at once.
There is a damn here on Malibu creek that only has a shallow lake behind it and has 50 feet of silt behind it. They won't take it down and they won't haul the silt away first so we are stuck with a screwed up river forever. If they just popped the damn open during one of our big winters the silt would be gone in a year or two. Instead we will have a damn forever. Sad really.
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Hardly Visible
Social climber
Llatikcuf WA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 5, 2011 - 08:14pm PT
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They have carved down Glines Canyon dam to where water spills over the top
Here's a view of their barge setup
Meanwhile at Aldwell dam all spillway infastructure has been removed and the dam itself lowered about 10 feet. The river has been diverted to the east side of the dam while they blast the west spillway sill and deepen a diversion channel over there.
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labrat
Trad climber
Nevada City, CA
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Nice posts!
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